Viola Davis Defends ‘The Help’ and Discusses Awards

Predicting a propitious awards season for Viola Davis, Speakeasy caught up with the actor earlier this month at a lunch in Manhattan to discuss the allure of awards and survival tactics to make it through the season. Davis was nominated for a SAG award this morning for her leading role in “The Help,” a film we thoroughly enjoyed. (You can read a full list of nominees here.) Davis plays Aibileen Clark, an African-American maid working for a Southern family in the 1960s. She teams up with Skeeter, played by Emma Stone, to write a book from the help’s point of view. This is Davis’ second SAG nomination – she was nominated in 2009 for her supporting role in “Doubt.”

“There’s a trap to awards,” Davis said, “they validate us and we all want to be honored but the performance that wins the award has to be internal. There can’t be any ulterior motives or it’s not an honest performance and therefore shouldn’t be honored.”